


The Christmas Chronicles: The Return Of The Elves

by lisachan



Series: Leoverse [71]
Category: Glee
Genre: Mildly Dubious Consent, Other, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 11:18:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5867305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisachan/pseuds/lisachan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Christmas night, and Adam's enjoying the new tree and presents Santa and his elves themselves gave him. But there's one present he hasn't received yet, and one of the elves is apparently very keen on wanting to deliver it in person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Christmas Chronicles: The Return Of The Elves

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Christmas Chronicles: Saving Santa](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5865751) by [Tabata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabata/pseuds/Tabata). 



> **WARNING:** This story is an **AU** from the original 'verse. What happens in here has little to none correlation with what happens in Leonard Karofsky-Hummel VS The world or Broken Heart Syndrome. The characters involved are (mostly) the same, but situations and relationships between them may be completely different.  
>  Here I come with the sequel to the first Christmasverse installment! When Tab gave it to me as a Christmas present, she told me that story basically had nothing I would want to read inside. I guess he was referring to the fact that there was no porn in her story. Turns out I didn't mind much, after all I could always write a sequel with ALL the porn she hadn't put in the first one. And... that's basically what I did. Enjoy!

Explaining to his mother how the gargantuan tree and its abundancy of presents came to be in their sitting room has been easier than Adam would have ever thought it’d be. He spent a few minutes trying to come up with something believable and then, when his mother asked, he simply told her the elves had brought everything. As an answer to that, she started laughing out loud and hugged him tighter than he had ever been hugged before – and he has experienced a lot of severe tight-hugging in his life, being his mother one of the best qualified huggers in the whole of Lima and possibly Ohio too –, probably believing he had spent the whole year saving money to surprise her like this.

The occasion has given him quite a boost in self-esteem, especially in regard of telling a story and being believed putting into it the least possible effort, but he still hopes his mother doesn’t wake up right now, because as good as he can be at telling lies – and deep down inside he knows he’s really not – there isn’t a story believable enough that would help to explain rationally how it’s possible that there’s an elf in his room, and that apparently he came to see _him_.

“I thought you’d be working,” he says, sitting up on the bed and reaching for the lamp on the nightstand, to turn it on. Cody’s standing very close to the door, as if he didn’t want to intrude by walking further inside the room without a prior invitation. He’s smiling shyly, too, which is honestly too pretty a sight for Adam to bear.

“It’s almost six in the morning,” he says, “I’m sure Blaine and Leo will be fine wrapping the night out on their own.”

Adam opens his mouth to reply, but nothing comes out of it, so he closes it again, his teeth snapping. Cody chuckles, and Adam’s heart skips a beat. “Wasn’t this your first Christmas out, though?” he manages to ask in the end.

Cody nods enthusiastically – he still doesn’t move. Adam wonders – is he really waiting for an explicit invitation? Should he just tell him – come closer? “It was.”

“I remembered,” Adam nods, “You seemed so excited.”

“I was,” Cody smiles, “I am.”

“Then why are you here?” Adam asks, puzzled, “Shouldn’t you be with them, congratulating each other over a good night’s work, downing random pills that look like candy and having weird sex… somewhere?”

Cody blushes vividly, covering his face with both his hands in a sudden, quick movement. “Don’t say it like that!” he pleads in a whiny voice that makes everything weird, “It sounds bad, if you say it like that.”

“I don’t think there is a way to make it sound better,” Adam laughs, relaxing a bit with his back against the headboard of the bed. Cody parts his fingers and takes a peek at him through the gaps between them – his baby blue eyes flash, glistening in the yellow, warm light of the room, and Adam feels happy he passed by. “Why are you here?” he asks curiously, crossing his legs to make room for him and patting with his hand on the now empty spot on the mattress, inviting him to sit.

Cody doesn’t answer right away. He walks closer, first, and sits down on the bed, as close to him as he possibly can without dropping on his lap. “I thought you deserved more presents.”

Adam laughs again, although tenderly, shaking his head. He doesn’t know much about Cody, quite obviously, but it’s undeniable he feels drawn towards him, in a way. He’s funny, he’s hella cute. That’s all there is to it, really, but things, he only recently found out, tend to escalate quickly when elves are involved. They’re peculiar creatures. To say the least.

“You gave me plenty already,” he says, “Mom loved them. We haven’t had a Christmas like this one in, well… a very long time,” he finishes with a warm smile.

Cody blushes again, but this time he doesn’t hide his face. Adam wishes he could read his mind, to try and see what goes on in that elvish brain of his, to make him blush like that for a simple smile. “I thought you deserved more,” he insists, looking intently at him, “You helped us a lot, and you’ve been so kind. And I’m so happy we got to reconnect with you, after all these years. You’ve always been one of my favorites, you know?”

“How could I possibly know that?” Adam laughs, “Or believe it, for that matter,” he adds with a grin, “You must’ve followed billions of kids, how could you even remember me? Don’t try and flatter me, Cody, that’s dishonest.”

“But I’m not lying,” Cody shakes his head, “We can’t lie. You know that.”

“Yes, I know that,” Adam smiles again, reaching out for Cody’s hair and stroking them affectionately. They’re soft and silky, amazing to the touch. He vaguely wonders how his skin feels, but he doesn’t act upon that thought, he’s not sure that’d be wise. “So why was I one of your favorites?”

“Because,” Cody answers simply, “You were sweet.”

“Right,” Adam chuckles, “Was I the only sweet kid in the world?”

“Definitely not,” Cody shakes his head, “But you were sweet nonetheless. I don’t know, I remembered you. Each Christmas I would ask about you and the presents you had asked for. It was a fun game to play, and it made me happy to know you were okay."

"That at least as long as I was okay," he answers, his smile saddening. Cody moves closer to him, and he feels it before he sees it, because the air changes shape around him, it changes temperatures, or so it seems, getting pleasantly warmer despite the snow falling relentlessly out the window, lying on the ground and on every other surface in layers and layers of soft, icy glaze.

"It was heartbreaking, what happened to you," Cody says in the softest of voices. One of his hands lands on Adam's shoulder and strokes it gently, soothingly.

"Ancient history," Adam forces a smile upon his face, shaking his head, "I'm sorry I even brought it up, it wasn't my intention."

"It's okay," Cody smiles, moving further close. His thigh rubs against Adam's knees, it gives him some sort of vague thrill, even through the pajama pants. "How did you and your mom spend the day?"

"She had to work through half of it," Adam answers, uncertain whether he should back off a little, just to put himself in a safer position, or he should move even closer, searching for more warmth, "But it was okay. Last year she had to work the night shift too. Hospitals are crazy, and she's a hard working one. I'm proud of her for that."

Cody seems to pause for a little while, his blue eyes shimmering as they study him. "You're such a wonderful person," he says, his voice so honest and innocent, "You went through so many awful things, but—"

"Just the one, really."

"No, not just the one," Cody resolutely shakes his head, "All of it. Losing a father isn't just one thing, it changes everything. The money issues, the loneliness issues, the melancholy issues, all those things generated from that one first thing. But you went through all of them, you survived them all, and a lot of kids do, we see them doing it, they survive the bad things, but the bad things tarnish them. They break them in ways that makes it impossible for them to patch themselves up ever again. You, on the other hand..." his hand moves up along Adam's neck, and ends its journey on his cheek, where it lies for a while, his thumb moving against his cheekbone in slow circles, "You're still whole. You held up. I think that's why you can still see us, the bad things didn't manage to break you. You're unbroken."

Adam doesn't know if it's the touch of Cody's fingers or the weight of his words that makes him blush, but something does. When Cody stops speaking an heavy silence falls upon them, enclosing them in a soundless ball, but it's not an unpleasant silence, it's not heavy as a stone, more as a wool blanket, something rough, handmade, unbelievably warm.

"No one ever told me anything like that," he says in a whisper.

"I doubt anybody knows you well enough to do it," Cody answers, a tiny smile curling his cherry lips upwards at the corners, "You don't seem the kind of person who easily lets the others in."

"I'm not, in fact," Adam nods, turning his head to the side a little. He hopes Cody doesn't move his hand, because that's not what he wants, and as if reading his thoughts Cody doesn't move, and Adam can turn just enough to place a soft kiss on his palm, "You magic lot kind of had to force your way inside, if I remember correctly."

Cody chuckles, finally retrieving his hand. "Will you ever forgive us for that?"

"I already did," Adam says, intercepting his hand and taking a hold of it before Cody can pull it too far from him. He holds it between his own, stroking its back with his thumbs. It feels amazing, his skin. So warm and smooth, practically perfect. Nobody Adam ever touched in his life ever felt like this. "Why are you here, really?" he asks. His heart's beating faster, he feels as though they're walking slowly towards something bright, and each step of the way the light grows brighter, blinding. 

"I told you," Cody answers, his voice low. He wasn't expecting Adam to keep holding his hand like that, he's embarrassed, Adam can read confusion in his eyes. He doesn't know how he feels about that. "I wanted to—"

"Give me a present, yes," Adam finishes for him, hastily, "But you're carrying none. And I can't think of anything else you could give me, that you haven't already put in a box under the three you gave me too. So— what is it, really?"

Once again, Cody falls silent, and for the longest time. His expression is unreadable, and the longest the silence goes on the more scared Adam gets. Maybe he said too much. Maybe he pressed too hard. Though he doesn't feel like he pressed nearly hard enough to please himself. But maybe Cody—

"I don't want to give you a thing," Cody says, derailing his train of thoughts. It's Adam's turn to fall silent. He doesn't know what to expect, and he's scared of everything, excited about everything too. Cody moves closer again, climbing on the bed on his knees. "I've thought about you in the last few days."

Adam swallows, straightening his legs by the side of Cody's body, to let him move even closer. "You did?"

Cody nods, kneeling between his thighs, close enough to cup his face in his hands. "I actually couldn't stop."

"I thought..." Adam says, though it isn't easy to speak holding his breath, scared that even breathing too loud would be enough to make Cody flee, "I was under the impression you were already taken," he finally manages, "You know. With _them_."

"I am with them," Cody nods, speaking less than an inch away from his lips, "I'm just not taken. I'm not a thing, after all."

"...and you," Adam swallows, "You don't want to give me a thing."

Cody shakes his head, his nose rubbing against Adam's in the movement. "Right," he says. His breath is warm and carries the sweetest scent. Sugar and chocolate, and then something else, something entirely his, something Adam wonders if he could taste on his lips, if only he tried.

He reaches out for him, wrapping an arm around Cody's waist. He's even thinner than he seems, his somewhat baggy clothes puffing up around the spot where he's holding him, folding themselves in waves, as if he was wrapped up in a curtain or something. "I'm not the sweet kid you remember anymore," he says, speaking right against his lips. The air is getting hotter, Adam isn't thinking about the snow anymore. 

"I think you are," Cody says, but he's speaking on a shaky breath, and his words sound unconvinced. Adam can't understand if he's thrilled or scared, both thoughts are equally exciting to him. Something about Cody unleashes a new person inside him. Perhaps not the best person, after all. 

"I can easily prove you wrong," Adam insists, and this time he doesn't wait for him to reply. He holds him tighter and overturns their positions on the bed, laying Cody down on his back, falling upon him and pressing him into the mattress with the whole weight of his body. Cody clings to him, his nails digging into Adam's shoulders, his fingers feeling him through the fabric of his t-shirt. "You say you thought about me. You have no idea how much I've thought about you."

"On the contrary, I do," Cody says, parting his legs just enough to let Adam fall between them, "That's how I know this would've been a good present."

"So that's the only reason why you came," he growls against his lips. He hasn't kissed him yet, and he wants to kiss him so much, but the wait fires him up, and he's got a feeling, on the back of his head, that it works the same for Cody, "Just because you knew I wanted it. You didn't want it yourself?"

Cody seems to think about it – he bites his lips to stop himself from answering right away, he holds his breath, then he swallows. When he finally speaks, he does it while rocking his hips at the same time, rubbing against Adam, feeling him and letting him feel himself through the thickness of their clothes. "I did," he says. Adam thinks it's awesome elves can't lie – he’s pretty sure if Cody could've, he'd have done it in this occasion.

He decides not to think about this, about the implications of this, though, not for the moment, at least. He dives in, kissing him hungrily on his lips. It occurs to him, in a vague bout of sudden awareness, that he's never kissed someone before, never did anything the like of this with anyone before, and that he doesn't know what he's doing, and that that's probably going to make him end up making such a mess out of things that he won't find the guts to look Cody in the eyes ever again. 

"I've never—" he starts out, but Cody stops him, kissing him again.

"Sssh," he murmurs against his lips after breaking that kiss, a little smile blooming on that perfect mouth of his as one of his hands travels south, just like Adam's blood doing, "See? I knew you were still sweet."

He feels Cody's tiny hand land on his crotch, palm him shamelessly, and the pleasure exploding from that simple touch fuels him right away, turns his brain off, forces him to act upon instinct. He's getting hard, harder than he's ever been, surely harder than he's ever been in the presence of someone else, and he needs release, he aches for it. He curls his fingers around the elastic waistband of his pants and pulls them down, baring himself. Cody doesn't flinch – he removes his hand only barely long enough to let him strip naked, and right after that his fingers are already on him again, on his skin, this time, and they're warm and pleasant and they know what they're doing, wrapping firmly around his shaft, stroking it, teasing the head of his cock, ghosting against the slit on top of it, making him grow even harder.

Adam groans in the umpteenth kiss he forces against Cody's mouth – it gives him a special thrill to steal kisses first, not to wait for Cody to ask for one. It feels better to push him, to bite at his lips, to thrust his tongue in his mouth, instead of waiting for Cody to set the pace, to lead him back to calmness, to softness. This calls to his primal instincts more than anything he's ever done, and he wants to follow that call, he hears it loud and clear, he doesn't want to deny himself that.

His fingers move up and down Cody's body, stroking, pushing, pretending to scratch. They dive underneath his baggy clothes, pulling them up, baring his barely rounded belly, the pink, hardened, tiny mounds of his nipples. One could never guess it by just looking at him, because of how skinny and tiny he is, but there's softness all over Cody, softness on his tummy, on his arms, on his beautiful rounded thighs. Adam follows those curves with his hands, fingers open wide, to feel the most of him under his fingertips. Cody lets out a symphony of moans and noises that fill the air of the room, tiny gasps, little yells, every time Adam strokes some sensitive spot he seems to lose control entirely for a moment, and all the spots Adam touches seem to have turned into sensitive spots overtime, enough to change that chain of single moments of lost control into a prolonged situation, an endless wave of low-key pleasure that keeps them both on the edge, but still far enough from the abyss not to fear a sudden fall.

Adam leans in on him, his lips glued to his neck, then to his chest. One moment he's kissing innocent skin, the next he's playing with Cody's nipples, suckling at them, drawing wet circles around them with his tongue, holding them between his teeth for a moment, hard enough to hear Cody hiss, and then kissing them soothingly, forcing desperate, liquid moans out of Cody's swollen lips. He keeps rocking his hips as if someone was already fucking him, making love with the anticipation of him just as much as he's making love with him right now.

"I don't want to hurt you," Adam murmurs against his skin after a while, when he feels Cody's fingers searching for his erection again, almost pulling it in an imperious, fierce demand.

"You won't," Cody reassures him, his voice a breathy moan, his movements growing more urgent, one last confirmation that he wanted this just as much as he wanted to give it to him. 

Adam just nods, pulling himself up on his arms, moving away from Cody to give him space enough to undress. He pulls his pants and tights down along his legs, and they emerge from the thick, colorful fabric pink like roses and equally as soft. There are some red traces over his skin, the spots where Adam stroke harder. Just seeing them makes him want to do more, bite him all over, swallow him whole. He's never felt like this with anybody else, never felt so drawn to no one else. It's amazing, the way he feels now. So new, and yet he feels no fear, not anymore, only pleasure.

When Cody parts his legs again, he's about to push inside him right away, but Cody stops him with a hand firmly pressed against his chest. "Wait," he says, smiling softly, "One second." He brings his fingers to his mouth, and Adam watches, mesmerized, as they disappear past his lips. Cody sucks at them slowly, silently, his eyes never leaving Adam's as he makes them slick. He uses them, then, brings them down along his body, between his thighs, against his opening. For a moment, Adam's left wondering what's he gonna do with them – then, when he sees them push through Cody's opening, bury themselves inside his body, he understands. His insides twist and curl at the sight, he wants him so much his cock, his muscles, his back, the whole of his body, everything's aching. 

"Fuck, you look amazing," he whispers, kissing him hard enough to confuse him for a moment. Cody moans in the kiss, _because_ of the kiss and because of the pleasure he's giving himself, and waits for Adam to part from him, to start watching him again, to start moving his fingers once more. He thrusts them inside and then pulls them back out almost for their entire length, and then some other time he buries them deeper, and Adam can't see what's happening, but he can imagine it, he can see them with the eye of his mind, curl and twist and scissor and open him up, getting him ready for him, and the more he looks at it the more he wants to be inside him, the more he wants Cody to be done with it and let him take charge – and at the same time he wishes this moment could never end, that he could spend the whole of his life just watching him finger himself, because he can't imagine a sight more beautiful, nothing else he's ever seen in his life can compare.

"Enough," he grunts after a while, when his lust for his body wins the battle against his lust for his beauty. He holds Cody's thin wrist in his hand and pulls his hand away from him. Cody doesn't protest and doesn't put up any kind of fight. He smiles, instead, spying something in Adam's eyes, something Adam hasn't noticed yet.

"You're gonna rough me up," he says, and Adam doesn't get the meaning of his words until he himself experiences it. He drives his cock past the tight muscle ring of his opening in a careless, ruthless thrust, burying himself inside Cody's body up until his balls hit against his buttocks in just one push. It's the friction, the sudden, maddening pressure, the yell Cody lets out, shameless and deep, it's those details showing him what Cody really meant. How he knew, he doesn't know. He's just glad he was prepared for the eventuality.

He doesn't stop, not even for a moment, and after all Cody doesn't ask for it, so why should he? He keeps thrusting inside him, holding himself up on both hands, his arms tense in the effort of keeping his body up and away from Cody's, not to crush him. Cody's hands move slowly up and down his arms, feeling the lines of his muscles, enjoying them. That first thrust left him spent and open, powerless, and he keeps his legs parted, barely bent at the knee, and tries to follow Adam's pace. It's not the velocity that's troubling him, 'cause Adam's slow, it's the strength, the hardness of every single thrust, the way he pulls back almost enough to get out of him entirely, and then pushes himself in again as hard as he possibly can, each and every time. Adam can see him bounce every time, can hear him gasp, pant, struggle for air. It makes him feel powerful to be able to give him such an overwhelming amount of pleasure, to mess him up like this, make it impossible for him to control this in any way. 

"Adam—" Cody moans his name, holding onto his shoulders, biting at his bottom lip.

Adam leans in on him again, kissing him hard, pushing inside him even harder. "You coming?" he asks shamelessly. Cody only answers with a nod of his head, and that's somehow infuriating. "Tell me."

"I'm coming," Cody says, his voice breaking a little as he turns his face, trying to hide away. 

Adam kisses him again, makes him face forward, towards him. "Open your eyes," he says softly. Cody silently complies, and his eyes are watery and a little unfocused. It's like watching stars shining on a clear morning sky. Something inconceivable, frighteningly beautiful. "Say it again."

Cody parts his lips but falls silent right away. He seems to understand what Adam wants with a second of delay, and this time, when he speaks, he doesn't look away again. His eyes remains locked with Adam's as he utters the words, "I'm coming."

And if someone had told Adam words could squeeze an orgasm out of him, he wouldn't have believed it. But it happens, it's the words that make it happen, just knowing Cody's about to come prompts his climax out of him. He comes in long, hot shots, filling Cody up, and he feels him moan desperately as his cock throbs with the last wave of pleasure. He doesn't even have to touch him – Cody comes on his own right after that, white, translucent traces all across his stomach, drops like tiny pearls. Adam leans in, moving on instinct. Licks them all away. Cody gasps and moans, losing his fingers through his hair, messing them up even more than sleep and sex already did.

He lies down against him, afterwards, his head resting on Cody's lap. He's sticky, but Adam doesn't mind. He doesn't mind the smell of sex and sweat, or the deafening sound of silence, or the proximity of their bodies. It's warm. It's comfortable. He digs it.

"You weren't allowed to come here, were you?" he asks after a while. Cody tenses and decides not to answer – and that's answer enough. "Is it gonna be a problem?"

"I don't know," Cody says in half a sigh. Then he whines, "Yes, probably."

"I'm sorry," Adam replies right away, leaving a soft kiss against his belly. 

Cody smiles – the tiniest sound, the softest puff of air. "I don't mind," he says then, stroking his hair. Adam's not sure he believes him. He knows he can't lie, he's just not sure that means he can't omit the truth either.

"Can you stay the night?" he asks naively – he recognizes it.

"The night is almost over, Adam," Cody answers patiently, "Try and sleep a couple hours."

"Will you still be here when I wake up?"

That tender smile again, the one Adam can't see but can feel very well. "Don't count on it," he says.

It's the saddest thing Adam's ever heard, but his eyes are growing heavy and that's entirely beyond his control. He suspects Cody's having everything to do with it, but he feels too sleepy to protest. The last thing he thinks as he falls unconscious is that not all Christmas presents feel good from start to finish, and this, in particular, was awfully bittersweet.

*

Cody tries not to be too frightened as he sneaks inside the factory again. It's very early and he doesn't think he'll meet anybody on his way to his room, not after the night before, at least. Christmas time is always a very hectic time for the factory, they go through the whole year in preparation of that one single night, and once it’s passed they only have a few days to rest before they have to start with the usual daily grind. The elves usually take that time for themselves, they chill and dedicate themselves to their favorite hobbies – which, in Leo’s case, for example, is sleeping. Blaine usually favors burying himself in his lab with his old sleighs, trying to put them back in motion and fix the little damages time imposes on them when he stops using them once a new model comes along, but on the 25th, after spending the entire 24th night out, he likes to sleep too.

So Cody’s fairly sure that’s what they’ll both be doing, sleeping, and the moment he crosses the last hallway to his bedroom and he finds Leo pacing nervously in front of its open door, his arms crossed over his chest and the most distressed expression Cody’s ever seen on his face, his heart skips a bit, and what up to one moment before was just a latent sense of worry for an improbable possibility becomes righteous fear for an impending disaster.

“Leo—“

“How could you?”

His voice is low, cold, completely different than what Cody had expected it to be. He had expected rage, screams, maybe to be tossed around like a rag doll, as Leo clearly enjoys to do when he’s too upset and he needs a let out for the worrying amount of fury that average size body of his can surprisingly bottle up. But there’s nothing of the like in Leo’s eyes, only a darker shade of blue which can only mean he’s disappointed.

“Let me explain—“

“I don’t need you to explain,” Leo doesn’t even flinch. He doesn’t relax his arms down along his sides and he doesn’t move one step more towards him. He wants to keep that distance – the message comes across loud and clear. And Cody’s never seen it – Leo wanting to keep his distance from him. That’s a new, terrifying side of him he didn’t know a thing about. “I know where you’ve been,” Leo explains, throwing a glance in the direction of Cody’s belt, “We put a tracker in the buckle. Silly us— we were worried something could happen to you. Your first night out, who knew, maybe you could’ve gotten lost. But you _wanted_ to get lost, didn’t you? You wanted to disappear.”

“I just wanted to see Adam—“

“You’ve _seen him_ less than a week ago!” Finally, something breaks in Leo’s composure, and he raises his voice. He doesn’t move closer, he doesn’t uncross his arms, but his eyes come alive, they glisten in the multicolor lights from the lamps decorating the hallway, “You didn’t want to just see him. You went there for him. You’ve got his smell all over you. I should’ve known. I should’ve just _known_. It was obvious in the way you two looked at one another – and you kept blushing. I should’ve denied you permission to come, tonight.”

“But—“ Cody tries, clutching his hands in fists down his sides, “I’ve trained two years for this, you couldn’t—“

“You trained two years _for what_?!” Leo yells again, “To follow us half the night and then run somewhere else right after that?”

“I’ve been with you more than half the night, Leo,” Cody answers bitterly, his gaze locked to the floor, “You’re being unfair.”

“Unfair!” Leo’s hands twitch as if they were aching to grab something - _him_ \- but he manages to control himself. “This was your first Christmas out with us, it was a test, and you failed it. You failed your role, you failed…” his voice breaks a little, “You failed us.”

Cody looks up right away, biting at his bottom lip. “Leo— it wasn’t my intention. I just needed— I had to be with him, tonight. Even if only for a moment.”

“It’s been more than a moment,” Leo insists, after that little crack pain is showing easily through the harshness of his voice, “We were worried for you, we were terrified. Blaine hasn’t slept in almost 48 hours and yet he was ready to jump on the sleigh again just to come find you. When we saw you were at Adam’s we…” he hesitates for a moment, and then he just shakes his head, as if he didn’t want to show too much of how he’s aching inside, as if he wanted to protect the soft, vulnerable part of himself Cody wounded tonight.

“…I’m sorry,” Cody says, lowering his eyes again, “I didn’t want any of this. I just needed—“

“Don’t say it again.”

“I’m sorry,” Cody says instead. “Please, let me talk with Blaine.”

“With Blaine?” Leo’s voice sounds genuinely surprised, and when Cody looks up he finds his expression matches the sound perfectly. Leo’s almond-shaped blue eyes are fixed on him, filled with disbelief. “He doesn’t wanna talk with you,” he says. If he notices the cracking sound of Cody’s heart breaking into pieces, he doesn’t show. “I didn’t want to, either. But I had to tell you these things face to face. I never thought you— _you_ of all people, could do something like that to us. I could’ve expected it from anybody, never from you.”

“Leo, please,” Cody sobs, trying to hold back the tears in his eyes, “I’m sorry. Just give me a chance, I swear—“

“No,” Leo says. The sound of his voice has the definitiveness of death. “This isn’t something you can get a second chance for.” He moves aside, freeing the way for the door of Cody’s bedroom, even pointing at it. “Grab your things and leave,” he says.

Despite having the making of presents as their job, all the elves, Cody included, have always believed Christmas isn’t so much about opening gifts, as it is about opening one’s heart. 

He just found out that can be so much about happiness as it can be about pain.

*

It was colder than he remembered it to be when he woke up this morning. He was alone in the bed and the sheets hadn’t kept the slightest trace of Cody’s smell.

He’s been in a bad mood since then.

His mom has had to take the morning shift, which means he was completely alone in the house. He had to have breakfast on his own, and then clear the sitting room of all the colorful wrapping paper they had torn off the presents the night before. Both things felt pretty unpleasant. The silence, only broken by the sound of the spoon hitting against the walls of the mug as he sugared his milk, and then by the crumpling of the paper as he threw it away, was deep and empty. He can only thank God he doesn’t have a big house – otherwise his steps through it would’ve made an echo, and he’s pretty sure if he’d heard it he’d have preferred to face the snow and the freezing cold outside to staying in.

All through it, he hasn’t stopped thinking about Cody for a moment. It’s been awful. Everything reminds him of him, the sugary sweetness of the milk, the colors of the paper, the tree, the emptiness. His bed. 

He’s not sure he can explain rationally what happened last night. He’s never been really interested in sex, let alone in having it with anyone. He understands being horny, he is, sometimes, and he takes care of it like anybody else, but what happened with Cody was different. It wasn’t just sex – and he feels lame thinking about it. He barely knows the guy. And he’s an elf. Already in a relationship with two other people, to boot.

It’s not like him to feel so lost without someone, especially if the conditions determining the situation are so awkward. He’s learned about loss, in his life. He’s learned to live with it, with the thought of it, with the fact that you don’t forget it, the loss, not even for a moment, that it’s always with you, a silent companion, that sometimes you can ignore it but that you ultimately have to share with it the majority of your life. But the fact that Cody left, even though he knew he would, burns differently. It’s part jealousy, part anger, part frustration at knowing before falling for it that it would’ve been a ridiculous, complicated situation, and deciding to fall for it anyway.

Sitting on the couch, staring at the TV without really seeing it, Adam wonders if he’ll ever see him again. Probably not, he guesses. Knowing his fiery temper, Leo must’ve been furious after seeing him come back so late. There’s no chance him – or Blaine, for that matter – will ever grant him permission to come find him again.

He wishes he didn’t have to be so bummed about it. But he misses him – if it’s even possible to miss this way someone he’s been knowing so little, and that’s been with him for such a brief time, and that’s been gone for less than a day.

He groans, angry at himself for being such an idiot. He should be way past these stupid things. He should be studying. He’s at his last high school year and he has to keep his grades high if he wants to access to a scholarship – which is the only way he’s going to get into college, anyway. He needs to focus, he can’t weigh on his mother after he graduates, she’s done enough for him as it is. He wants to be a son she could be proud of, and he doubts she’d be proud of a silly boy pining after some random elf who was only here to give him an extra present anyway.

As if summoned by his thoughts, his mother opens the door and walks into the house, bringing with herself the cold winter air and a few snowflakes following her in from the outside. “I’m home!” she says, but she sounds troubled, and when Adam looks up from beyond the back of the couch he finds out she not only _sounds_ troubled, she is.

“Mom?” he asks, turning around and kneeling on the couch, “Everything okay?”

“What?” she turns back to him after taking a peek out the window. She seems distracted. “Oh, baby, hi. Yes, don’t worry, it’s just— I’m a little preoccupied with this boy.”

“A boy?” Adam frowns, climbing off the couch to join her, “At the hospital?”

“No, right outside,” she says, pointing out the window, “He mustn’t be older than fourteen or something, he looks very, very young. And he’s dramatically underdressed. He was sitting on the stairs when I arrived, but when I got closer he ran away and hid. I’m wondering if I should call the police, he doesn’t seem to be okay.”

Something doesn’t sound right in what his mother’s saying, something’s bothering him, it’s like watching a picture and knowing there’s a detail that’s completely out of place, but not being able to point it out. 

He understands what it is when he takes a look outside and the shiny flash of a pair of unreal baby blue eyes blinds him, making his heart skip a beat.

“Cody,” he whispers, and he quickly runs outside, tearing his jacket off the coat hanger to bring it to him. His mother, puzzled and confused, tries to stop him, but he doesn’t even answer. He has to go to him. “Cody?” he calls, turning around the corner of the house. He finds him easily – because he’s not really hiding. He’s sitting on his heels, his back against the wall, trying to make himself as small as he possibly can, trying to disappear between the snowbanks. He knows he’s probably not cold at all, but it still feels weird to see him out in the open wearing only that ridiculously thin colorful sweater and his shorts. “Cody, you’re gonna freeze to death,” he says patiently, walking towards him and crouching by his side, covering his shoulders with his own jacket, “Here… this will warm you up.”

“Elves can’t freeze to death,” he answers. His voice sounds so sad, it’s heartbreaking. His eyes are red and puffy – he must’ve been crying. God knows how long. “We live in the land of perpetual winter, don’t you remember? Or at least… I did.”

“Cody…” he moves closer, passing an arm over his shoulders, “What happened?”

“They got angry,” he says. He doesn’t look up. Adam wishes he’d look up to him. “Blaine didn’t even wanna talk to me. They threw me out. Told me to grab my things and go away.”

“But they can’t do that,” Adam frowns, “You’re an elf. That’s your home.”

Cody’s answer to that is a low, desperate sob, and the moment after he’s crying. His tears are big and full, they fall soundlessly to the ground and melt the snow leaving only little ditches in their wake.

“Cody, please…” Adam rubs his shoulders, trying to soothe him, “I’m sorry, I didn’t wanna say anything to make you cry. Just… will you please come inside?”

“I will make an even bigger mess,” he says, whining like a baby, trying to wipe his eyes, “I didn’t know where else to go…”

“You did good coming here, I’m glad you did!” Adam reassures him, helping him stand up, “Where are your things?”

“I didn’t take anything,” Cody answers in between sobs, “I couldn’t. I couldn’t stay there. I ran away.”

“It’s okay,” Adam presses a kiss against his temple, completely defeated by how fragile he looks right now, “Christ, you clothes are dripping wet. I’ll give you something warm to wear. Come inside.”

“I’m not cold,” Cody insists, his shoulders shaking with sobs.

“I am,” Adam tells him. That convinces him to follow.

“Adam?” his mom calls him when he walks in. When she sees he’s not alone, she runs towards him and Cody – her worried motherly expression could melt stone. “Oh, is it him?” she asks, instantly taking the wet hat off Cody’s head, “Oh, poor boy. Do you know him, Adam?”

“Yes,” Adam says, hastening to cover Cody’s pointy ears with the fur-lined hoodie of his jacket, “He’s— He’s a friend from school. His name’s Cody.”

Cody’s stopped crying, and he’s keeping his mouth shut for the time being. He refuses to look up, and Adam isn’t sure if it’s because he doesn’t want to risk having to talk with his mother and having to answer questions he couldn’t lie about, or if he just got disconnected from the world after having told him why he’s here now. Either way, Adam’s glad he’s silent right now. This is going to be hard enough even without having to explain that Cody’s an elf.

“Did something happen?” his mother asks, throwing him a concerned look.

“No, it’s just— he’s had a fight with his family,” Adam makes up on the spot, “Can he stay the night?”

He’s not so sure he came up with the right lie, because when he looks at his mother he finds her twice as concerned as she was before. Her job has made her used to abuse stories, even family ones, and overtime she’s learned to think as a nurse even when she’s outside the hospital. Adam knows she’s wondering if she should call someone, a doctor, the police or the social services, but after a few seconds her eyes clear up, and she nods. “It’s okay,” she tells Cody, “You can stay as long as you want. We’ll talk when you’re ready.” Then she turns to Adam. “Give him some dry clothes and put him to bed. I’ll put the kettle on.”

“Could I have—“ Cody’s voice sounds rough, and extremely uncomfortable, “Could I have a hot cocoa, instead of tea?” he asks, “Please?”

His mother smiles, reaching out to stroke his cheek. “Of course, honey,” she says sweetly, “Now go with Adam, I’ll be with you in a sec.”

They both watch her disappear through the door to the kitchen, and then Adam leads Cody down the short hallway to his bedroom. It’s a little messy – he hasn’t made his bed and there are clothes piled up on a chair in a corner, but Cody doesn’t seem to notice any of that. He keeps looking down, his eyes filled with tears he’s not crying anymore.

Adam closes the door and grabs him, wrapping his arms around him in a tight, warm hug. He doesn’t care that Cody’s clothes are wet and cold, and that they’re making his own clothes wet too. He’s warm and he still smells like last night, like some sort of spicy candy. He missed his scent. “I’m glad you decided to come here,” he says, as he feels Cody shiver and then relax against him, “I really am.”

Cody simply nods, a small but unmistakable sign of appreciation that makes Adam’s heart beat faster. It prompts a smile out of him, and he’s still smiling when he parts from Cody and walks towards the wardrobe, searching for something warm to give him. He’s pretty sure nothing of what he has fits him, but he comes up with an old hoodie, probably the only thing he’s kept from before he grew six inches on the summer he turned fourteen, and a pair of sweatpants that should be okay if Cody folds the hem a thousand times.

“Here,” he says, turning around. He tries not to scream like an eagle when he sees Cody standing in front of him, half naked. “God,” he whimpers, half-covering his face with the clothes, and Cody looks up at him, studying his face with uncertain eyes.

“Did I do something wrong?” he says, freeing himself of his pants and thighs. Shouldn’t he be wearing underpants? Why isn’t he wearing underpants?

“No… no,” Adam swallows, instantly thinking about his mother, both to try and calm down and to remember he can’t keep him naked too long, since she’s bound to come around with hot cocoa sooner rather than later, “It’s okay. Just put these on. They should keep you warm.”

“I told you, I’m—“

“Not cold. Yeah. I know. Still, put some clothes on. Please?”

Cody bats his eyelashes a couple of times, and then just nods, taking the clothes from his hands. Adam stares at him through the whole dressing up process. It’s ridiculous and shameful, but Cody doesn’t seem to mind. He doesn’t even seem to notice, actually. And he can’t peel his eyes off him, anyway, so there’s not much he can do to stop it. 

After he’s done, Adam leads him to the bed. He remembers one second before letting him slip in that he hasn’t tidied it up first, and so he has to physically stop him from getting under the covers and pull him back a few inches as he does it. Then and only then he lets him go on. Cody chuckles out of tenderness and surprise, and that’s the most rewarding sound Adam has ever heard.

“Listen…” he says, sitting on the edge of the bed after helping him settle with a couple pillows between his shoulders and the headboard, “I’m really sorry all this happened. Your present was— I mean, I loved it, but I’m not sure it was worth it.”

Cody’s lips curl into the saddest, tiniest smile. “I don’t know about that,” he says, “But I don’t regret doing it. I wish I had talked about it with Leo and Blaine, before. Maybe it’d have been different. But if I’m honest with myself, I know why I didn’t tell them anything about it.”

Adam holds his breath for a moment, and when he speaks his voice is shaky. “And why didn’t you?”

Cody looks up at him. In the dim light of the room, his eyes look like the sky after the sun’s gone but the stars hasn’t come out yet. A violent shade of blue that’s almost purple. “I knew they’d have told me I couldn’t come,” he says, “And I wanted to come.”

There’s no way Adam can stand still after hearing this – and he doesn’t. He moves closer, raising one hand and putting it on Cody’s nape, pulling him in for a kiss. Cody’s lips give in right away, grant him permission to thrust his tongue inside his mouth, and Adam kisses him with the same surprised urgency he used to unwrap his presents with when he was only a child. 

He moves away when he hears knocking on the door, and he’s back to a safe distance when his mother enters the room, carrying a tray with a couple mugs filled with hot cocoa topped with whipped cream. She sprinkled sprinkles on the cream like she does when she knows something bad happened and even though she won’t force Adam to tell her what it is she still wants to try and make it better. “Here I am,” she says with a smile on her face, walking towards them and putting the tray down on the nightstand. “Adam, I’ve fixed the couch for you to sleep on, tonight,” she tells him, and then she turns to Cody, “Drink your hot cocoa, sweetness, and then sleep it off, whatever it is. Will you be alright?”

Surprisingly enough, Cody smiles and nods, answering “Yes, thank you.”

*

Leo’s never seen Blaine like this, and it's saying something, considering he's spent his entire life glued to him, since he's been found.

Blaine's a pretty good-natured person, he's more often than not in a cheerful mood, he's always ready to see the bright side in everything – he _is_ Santa Claus, after all –, and Leo has never witnessed him in such a glum mood before.

Of course, Blaine’s anger doesn’t surprise him. How could it? It’s the same anger he’s filled with too. Since he got to know Cody better, when he was ready to take his place among the working elves, he’s always been one of his major obsessions, and a long-lasting one, to boot. For a brain like his, used to work around one single polestar and a constant stream of minor drifting points of interest coming and going into view with no particular drama involved in the process, to have found something else that can catalyze his attention almost as much as Blaine does is an event in and of itself. But Cody’s been able to do so much more than that, he doesn’t just distract him, he doesn’t just hide the world out of view when he walks into a room, it’s not something fleeting, the effect he has on Leo’s life, it’s something lasting, something Leo keeps feeling even after he’s gone.

When he’s angry, Cody and Cody alone manages to calm him down. He has a way to surrender to him that makes Leo want to stop being angry not to hurt him too much. When he’s so taken with something, good or bad that it is, that he loses any semblance of rationality and starts thinking in senseless correlations, Cody’s the only one who can make him reasonable again. He has a way to cling to reality and to ease it smoothly into a confused mind, something a confused mind tends to rely on, to get dependent of. 

He depends on Cody for so many things, and it’s the same for Blaine. Leo couldn’t pretend to know what are the things Cody helps Blaine with, since Blaine has always been very stubborn on the matter of keeping their relationship open but at the same time very private (something Leo was always pretty much alright with), but that Blaine and Cody are connected through the same support system he himself and Cody are connected through is beyond any doubt, for him.

So, of course Leo expected Blaine to be upset. 

What he didn’t expect was for his bad mood to be so consuming and totalizing that it would taint the things around it, the things at the edges, like his own relationship with him, for example.

Cody’s been gone four days, and Leo had hoped his absence would’ve at least held Blaine and him together, but it hasn’t happened. Blaine feels betrayed and spends hours alone in his lab, working on his sleighs, cursing softly under his breath and throwing his tools around whenever something doesn’t go as he had intended him to go – which happens pretty often considered all his sleighs are very old and rarely work, and the fact that the only thing he really wanted to work was this first Christmas night out with Cody and it turned out to be a disaster.

As for Leo, instead, he only recently found out he can’t, as much as he’d like to, substitute Cody with Blaine when what he really needs is Cody’s touch, Cody’s presence, or just the ringing sound of his laughter. There are things only Cody can do for him, moments in which he only wants to be with Cody, and he didn’t know that before, he thought his love for Blaine could easily help him cover up for anything else, but as it turns out it simply doesn’t work like that, love – that kind of love – can’t be the only thing in your life, or the only way you draw affection from the people around you. He needs different things. He needs Cody too.

It’d be much easier if he could put anger aside and just call him back.

He raises his head from the tablet on which he’s been playing out of boredom for the last three hours only when he hears the door clack open and then closed again. Blaine walks in, wiping his hands off a dirty rag. He’s wearing red jeans and a simple white sweater, and Leo wishes he didn’t feel so bad, because if he felt just slightly better he’d be jumping on him already.

“Hey,” he says. Blaine looks up at him as if just noticing his presence, and forces a smile upon his face. It’s a tense, unwilling smile, and Leo wishes he hadn’t smiled at all – what’s the point of a smile if it’s completely fake?

“Hey,” he says anyway, putting the rag down on the desk and walking towards the bed. He sits down on the edge and toes his boots off his feet, sighing wearily. 

“Can we talk?” Leo asks, putting the tablet aside.

“It depends,” Blaine answers, avoiding his eyes, “Not about Cody.”

“That’s precisely what we have to talk about.”

“I had a feeling.”

“Blaine— Come on,” Leo sighs, moving towards him on his knees, “We’re playing a losing game. I miss him.”

“You think I don’t?”

“I _know_ you do!”

“Then what?” Blaine turns towards him, finally facing him, “You’re going to tell me you’re not angry? That you don’t feel betrayed?”

“You know perfectly well I do,” Leo frowns, annoyed, “Believe me, I have a capacity for anger you couldn’t even dream about. You think you’re angry? Try living inside my brain every once in a while. Then you’ll know angry.”

“Leo,” Blaine groans, turning away again as he passes a hand through his curls, combing them out of his own face, “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying,” Leo answers, “That I _am_ angry, and I _do_ feel betrayed, but I miss him, and you’re missing him too, and this isn’t working. Look at us, we’re tense even when we’re on our own. We need him back. And honestly, to think throwing him out probably just meant he went back to Adam, it… it infuriates me.”

Blaine seems to consider his words, looking down to an empty spot between his feet on the floor. “You think that’s where he went?”

“More like sure of it,” Leo answers, leaning against his shoulder and sighing deeply, “If I know him well, and I do, after being bounced the way I bounced him, he’d have gone to the only place he was sure to be welcome to. Which… all considered, is the only other place there is for him now. And that’s Adam’s place.”

Blaine sighs too, covering his face with both hands and rubbing his eyes to try and push some weariness away. “I don’t want to hate the poor boy,” he says, “He’s done nothing wrong.”

“I’m not angry at Adam,” Leo shrugs, “Seriously, if Cody showed up in your room offering himself to you out of the blue, what would you do?”

“It’s not really a hypothetical question if it happened already.”

“Good point,” Leo nods, knowing the same goes for himself, “But we need to do something, anyway, and we need to do it soon.”

Blaine turns to look at him. “You’re suggesting we go fetch him,” he says.

Leo nods. “We have to solve this issue,” he says, “Whatever it takes.”

Blaine looks down at his own hands, clutching his knees in a nervous movement. “I’m not sure I can control myself once I see him.”

Leo looks at his hands and doesn’t dare touching them. He knows exactly what Blaine means, because he feels the same way. “He’ll be expecting it,” he just says.

They both hope that’s true.

*

Adam hasn’t really slept on the couch once since Cody arrived. On the first night he tried, he probably wanted to play the gentleman, and Cody thought it was very sweet of him and everything, but he couldn’t bear the thought of sleeping alone, especially after the night and day he’d had, so at some point during the night he just went to him, crouched next to the couch, one inch from Adam’s face, and asked him to come join him in bed. “But, my mother,” Adam said in an uncertain voice, his eyes darting to the hallway and then back to Cody’s face. Cody just asked him again, and Adam followed him back to his bedroom.

On the next morning, Adam managed to slip out of the bedroom and back on the couch before his mother woke up, but the second time, after sleeping together again, he woke up too late, and when he went out in the hallway his mother was already there. Cody, whose half-nakedness could be seen through the partly opened door, hastened to cover himself with the blanket, but Adam’s mother just looked at him, then back at her son, than back at him, and finally sighed. “Oh, Adam, love, _please_. You could’ve just _told me_ ,” she said, which settled the matter once and for all.

They’ve been sleeping together ever since, which has been a great help, because Cody dreads feeling alone. Back at the factory the concept of loneliness wasn’t something he was really aware of. He was mostly with Leo, and when he wasn’t he was with Blaine, and when none of them was around there was his brother, always ready to start complaining about how much more time he spent with his two lovers than he spent with him, and then all the other elves, Annie, Jesse, Matt. There was never a real chance at loneliness, and when Adam has to go to school and his mother has to work it’s really hard to go through the day all on his own. At least at night, when Adam’s always home, he wants to keep him near.

When he wakes up this morning he guesses it must be Saturday, because Adam’s still sleeping. He usually wakes up very early to go to school, because the house is pretty far from where the school building is, and he has to walk all the way there. It’s nice to wake up like this, to open his eyes and see his face. He’s very pretty. Looking at him, Cody wonders if he’s aware of it. 

He moves closer to him, to study his features from up close – the thick blonde eyebrows, his straight nose, the fascinating, almost classic line of his jaw and the way his messy blonde hair fall on his forehead – and he stops moving only when Adam scoffs half a laughter, and opens one eye to look at him. “I can feel you, you know?”

Cody blushes, pulling back. “Sorry…” he says, “I didn’t wanna wake you up.”

“Isn’t that what everybody always says?” Adam chuckles. Wrapping his arms around his waist and pulling him closer again, “While really meaning I was bored, so yes, I did want to wake you up?”

“I really didn’t wanna wake you up,” Cody pouts, “I wasn’t lying. I—“

“Cannot lie,” Adam smiles, and then kisses him on his lips, “I know. So tell me what you really wanted to do.”

“…I just wanted to take a better look at you,” Cody answers, relaxing between his arms, “I like you a lot.”

“At this point, I dare say that was obvious,” Adam chuckles, amused.

Cody pouts again, bumping his fist on his head. “Don’t mock me,” he says, “It’s just the first time something like this happens to me.”

Adam considers his words for a while, his smile faltering slightly, but falling in place right away. “What about your boyfriends, then?” he asks, “You don’t like them?”

“That’s different,” Cody answers easily, “I love them.”

“…ouch,” Adam laughs.

“What?” Cody blinks, “I told you I can’t—“

“Yes, I know,” Adam laughs again, covering his lips with his own in another kiss just to shut him up, “But someone really needs to teach you how not to be so rude. Just because something is true it doesn’t mean you can use it as a weapon.”

“I wasn’t trying to hurt you,” Cody explains, rubbing his nose against Adam’s, “It’s just what it is. I’ve known them all my life. I feel for them in a different way. You just… you have a certain effect on me,” he blushes, looking down, “For now, it’s just that. In the future, who knows.”

“At least,” Adam jokes, “Now I know there’s a future.”

Cody gives in to a little smile, but he’s not so sure about that. This is one of the things he can omit, though. Despite everything, Adam seems in a good mood, and he’s so pretty when he smiles. When he’s happy, when he feels playful, he has a way to touch Cody’s body, curious and enthusiastic, that Blaine and Leo with all their experience can't possibly match. They handle him great because they know him, they know exactly what to push, where to hit, how to stroke, but knowing him so well makes it – obviously – impossible for them to touch him as if they were getting to know him for the first time, as if his body was uncharted territory, a new fantastic land all to conquer and explore. Cody doesn’t want to lose that yet. He doesn’t know how much time he’s got left, and he wants to enjoy this feeling as long as he can.

He’s been thinking about this more and more with the passing of the days. He’s been wondering – he misses Blaine and Leo so much. They’ve been a part of his life for so long he feels lost every time he realizes they pushed him out of theirs. Do they miss him the same? Are they okay, now? Is there a hole between them, or did they manage to fill the void he left with someone else, or with themselves?

Will they ever come to get him back?

“You’re thinking about them, aren’t you?” Adam asks in a low, gentle voice.

Cody looks up at him and nods, honestly. “I miss them,” he says.

Adam’s smile doesn’t falter. If anything, it turns into a slightly wicked grin. “Let’s see what I can do about that, shall we?”

Cody chuckles, closing his thighs around Adam’s wrists when he feels his hand touch him shamelessly between them, but when he’s about to give in and kiss him something changes, and he sits up in a sudden, nervous movement, pushing Adam off himself as he turns to look at the window. The landscape outside seems unchanged – everything’s white, covered in snow, and the blinding gray sky promises the coming of yet another snowfall, just as it did when Cody woke up, but he knows something’s different, something worse than a storm is coming.

“Cody?” Adam calls for him, alarmed, “What happened? Did I do something wrong?”

They’re on their way.

He turns to look at him, holding his head between his hands. “Listen to me. Blaine and Leo will be here any moment.”

“What?”

“They won’t have much time to waste and they’re not gonna be happy. I need you to get out of here and don’t come inside, no matter what you hear.”

“What?!” Adam frees himself from his hold and jumps off the bed, outraged. “No! What does that even mean, no matter what I hear? What are they gonna do?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Cody shakes his head, following him out of the bed, “I’ll be okay. Trust me. I’m an elf. I can’t lie.”

“I swear, if you say that one more time…” but he doesn’t have a chance to finish his sentence. The window slams open as if pushed by the wind, and two tiny black spots become visible against the white slate covering the outside world. They grow in size quickly, and the closer they get the more recognizable they become. They turn to red, and in a matter of seconds they’re human figures, and right after that Adam can easily see their faces. “What the fuck…”

“Adam, listen to me,” Cody holds his hand between his own, tugging at him, “You have to go. It’s gonna be alright.”

“The more you say it, the more worried I get,” Adam murmurs. Blaine and Leo disappear from sight for a moment. The next thing he sees is their heads popping in the window frame, and he instinctively takes a step back, widening his arms to hide Cody behind himself.

Cody can understand where his fear’s coming from. He’s seen them both before, but they were okay then, maybe a little stressed, but controlled. He’s never seen this side of an elf.

Elves are pretty moody creatures, and they’re preys of their passions. For an elf, happiness can be totalizing, let him walk two feet off the ground without even noticing. Sadness can be overwhelming to the point of forgetting to ever had felt anything else that wasn’t sadness before. And rage, well. Rage can make you bloodthirsty.

Adam’s scared because he can see that in their eyes. Anger turning to rage turning to fury, making them dangerous.

“I’m not leaving,” he says, his voice shaking a little, his eyes fixed on Blaine and Leo as they climb into the bedroom through the window. They’re not looking at him, though. Their eyes are glued to Cody. And Cody needs to get Adam out of here immediately.

“Listen to me,” he says, making Adam turn around to face him and pulling him down. Their foreheads touching, their eyes locked together, he speaks to him softly, trying to get him to comply. “I’ll be okay,” he reassures him. He can hear Leo and Blaine growling in the background and he hopes the sound of his voice is enough to cover for it. “I’ll let you in once it’s over,” he reaches out for the handle, pulling the door open, “Don’t worry. Now go.” He pushes him out, he doesn’t wait for Adam to protest. He slams the door closed and then turns the key in the lock. Only then, he turns around to face his boyfriends.

He has never seen them like this. He’s seen them both angry and distressed, at times, but never like this. There’s something that’s not right in their faces, fury’s twisting their features on a deep level, something that makes them almost unrecognizable. Leo’s eyes are a darker blue than they’ve ever been, almost black, and Blaine’s eyes are alight like fire, glistening in the bright light of the morning that hits the snow like a mirror, reverberating everywhere.

They clearly don’t wanna talk, and Cody doesn’t dare opening his mouth. Leo’s the first to come forward, while Blaine stands back, crossing his arms over his chest, watching. 

He moves close enough Cody can feel his hot breath against his lips. He tilts his head upwards and tries saying something, but Leo anticipates him, grabbing his hair and pulling back. “Shut up,” he hisses, his voice deep, low and mean, “You don’t get to talk.”

“I’m s—“

“He said shut up,” Blaine says. His voice sounds even darker then Leo’s. Cody decides it’s better to comply.

He lowers his eyes, trying to relax. He knew something like this could happen – no, he knew it _would_ happen, at some point. By offering himself to Adam he dared to reaffirm his right to be his own person – something Blaine and Leo usually are alright with, but everything changes when sex is involved. They’re both used to see him as some sort of property in that sense, which means they’d never force sex upon him if he said no, but he still isn’t allowed to walk around having sex with whomever he wants. He can sort of understand this – he’s had to get used to it, more like. In Blaine and Leo’s heads it made perfect sense that they both could already have a relationship, and then start another with Cody. They basically involved him in a previously existing affair, but if Cody decides he wishes to involve someone else too, well, that’s just not acceptable anymore.

It’s unfair and unbalanced, and that’s an issue they’re gonna have to discuss, now that there’s a reason to, but to demand to do it right now would be ridiculous. What Blaine and Leo want now is to get him back, and there’s only a way they know how to do that.

Leo pushes him back against the door. He hits the wood hard and the door creaks, and he creaks too, a sound that gets muffled right away by Leo’s lips covering his own in a famished kiss. On the other side of the door, Adam says something he can’t understand. Cody feels him lean against the wooden panel, weigh against it, but he can’t talk to him right now, and he hopes he doesn’t insist. 

“I missed you,” Leo growls against his skin as he leaves a trail of wet kisses down his neck and shoulder. They’re rough – he uses his teeth to scrape more often than not. “I missed this. While you were out here having fun, we were missing you.”

“I missed you too,” Cody whines. Leo growls and forcefully pulls him away from the door, making him turn around. The movement is so quick it unbalances him, and Cody’s sure he’s gonna fall, but there’s something solid behind him, and he realizes it’s Blaine only when he feels his hand land on his ass with a loud slapping sound. 

“No one gave you permission to talk,” he grunts, lowering himself on his neck on the other side. While Leo alternates kisses and bites, Blaine doesn’t waste time with it, he bites right away, sinking his teeth in his flesh and leaving deep marks. The sharp pain makes Cody whine, but he liquefies when he feels Blaine’s tongue dance over every single mark, making it tingle. 

“I’m sorry,” Cody sobs a little, trying not to shiver too hard when Leo licks him up his neck and starts playing with his earlobe, sucking it inside his mouth and gently holding it between his teeth before releasing it over and over again, “I’m just trying… I wanted to say… that I wasn’t happy either with…”

“You need to learn,” Leo stops him, holding his chin between his thumb and index finger, “To obey. Keep your mouth shut. I don’t wanna hear no sound.”

Cody bites at his bottom lip, his eyes lost in Leo’s.

“Have you gotten that right, finally, pet?” Blaine asks, his hand traveling down Cody’s body and palming slowly his inner thigh up from his knee to his crotch, “Just nod.”

They both know how to touch him, and where to do that. His mind wavering, his body shaking with pleasure, Cody struggles to nod without letting any sound out. It proves to be harder than he thought it’d be when Blaine’s fingers close around his cock and start stroking. 

“Look at your face,” Leo says, licking him down his jaw and then kissing him again, his tongue thrusting into Cody’s mouth in an overwhelming motion, “You like it, don’t you? Shake your head or nod.”

Cody nods again, squirming on the spot. He feels Blaine’s lips open in a wicked smile against his shoulder, and he wants to be kissed by him so much his stomach is twisting and turning in anticipation. He’s missed them so much – he thought he understood what missing meant, but he had no idea until he felt their hands on him again. The way they complete him, the absolute knowledge they have of his body, it’s such a miraculous thing, how could he survive four days without it?

“Pet,” Blaine says, whispering hoarsely against his throat, “I think you’ve forgotten what we can give you, and why you should treat us way better than you did last night.” His hand moves away from Cody’s erection – the feeling of loss and cold and nakedness breaks him for a moment, until he feels that very same hand, still warm and half wet with pre-come, slip between his buttocks, teasing his opening. “We have to remind you.”

He lets out a desperate moan, pushing his ass back against Blaine’s hand to try and get his fingers to come in, but Blaine’s controlling his movements, he doesn’t wanna give him more than he decides to, so he withdraws, and it’s torturous, and Cody feels like crying. He turns his head, he wants to beg for a kiss, but Blaine doesn’t want to hear his voice, and he anticipates his request, kissing him fiercely. 

Cody knows Leo’s looking, and for a moment he fears he will be angered by the sight, but only a very brief while passes before he feels his lips on his neck again, and he can get lost inside the kiss, and fear nothing else anymore. He parts his legs when Leo pulls them open, asking for more room, and he suffocates a yell inside Blaine’s mouth, against his tongue, when, in a swift movement, Leo pulls one of his legs up to expose him and drives his erection through his opening, thrusting hard inside him.

“That’s more like it,” he whispers against Cody’s shoulder as he fucks him relentlessly, while Cody breaks the kiss to gasp for hair, shaken by pain and pleasure, one equally as sharp and numbing as the other.

“No, that’s not,” Blaine answers. He grabs a hold of Cody’s wrists, guiding his arms around Leo’s neck. “Hold on, pet,” he says. He exchanges a quick glance with Leo and Cody is only vaguely aware of the fact that some sort of silent message passed through them in that gaze. All he knows is that up to one moment before he had one foot on the ground and Leo was fucking him slowly and forcefully, and now, after being pulled up, held by his hips, he’s not touching the floor anymore, he’s open and exposed and Leo’s thrusting inside him harder than before, and way faster. 

“Please…” he whines, holding on Leo’s shoulders, “I can’t… Blaine…”

“Shush,” Blaine says, biting his neck, “It’d be very unfair if you only allowed Leo to get you back, wouldn’t it?”

He’d want to answer that he’s not allowing only Leo anything, that it’s them, the two of them with their hands on him, now, it’s them overwhelming him, it’s them biting him, sucking him, touching him everywhere. But he gets what Blaine means a moment after, when he feels the head of his cock press hard and stubborn against his already stretched opening.

He opens his eyes wide, gasping loudly. A desperate moan escapes his lips, but Leo catches it between his own, kissing him to silence. “You can do it, baby,” he says, “I know you can. Don’t disappoint us.”

The fact that they demand it, that they _expect_ it, that’s what makes the request irresistible.

He closes his eyes again, hiding his face against the curve of Leo’s neck. He’s never done something like this. It will hurt, and Cody can only hope it won’t break him, but he wants it, he needs it just as much as Blaine and Leo do, to be reclaimed, to be defeated, to feel spent and powerless between their arms. He pushes his ass back, and Leo’s cock slip a bit out of him. It’s no more than an inch, but it allows Blaine’s cock to pass through too, and the second after he’s screaming, and they’re both inside him, and he’s stretched to the limit and he can’t see anything except the blinding whiteness of pain, as his body struggles to accommodate them both.

“It’s amazing,” Leo whispers against his neck, his voice more uncertain than before, his breathing erratic, “Oh sh— you’re so tight. Blaine, I— I can _feel you_.”

“I know, kid,” Blaine says. He sounds controlled, but Cody knows, he can hear it in his voice, that he’s putting in it way more effort than he usually would.

They move together inside him, synchronized as if they had planned it. When one pushes in, the other pushes back, and as the first one withdraws it’s the second moving forward, making sure he doesn’t get a break, making sure he’s always feeling them, constantly, pushing inside him, burying themselves in his body up to the base of their cocks, and they’re hot, hard and throbbing violently with pleasure, but they both hold back their climax, because they want to milk it out of him first. 

Pushed and pulled in all directions, his body threatening to break with each and every thrust, Cody yells and moans and whines, his hips moving frantically as he tries to follow the pace, running after Leo’s cock when it pulls out, moving towards Blaine’s when it pushes in, his senses confused to the point that he can’t tell between pleasure and pain anymore. Everything is dreadful, and everything’s magnificent.

He comes suddenly, screaming at the top of his lungs. His whole body gives in and he shoots against Leo’s stomach as he rests his back against Blaine’s broad chest. They’re keeping him up, them both, balancing him between themselves to keep him in position. They keep thrusting inside him, but he can’t feel them, he can’t feel anything anymore, except the numbing pleasure of his orgasm spreading through him, coursing like blood in his veins, anesthetizing him.

He feels them come, though. They both pull out to do it. Leo first, impaling him on Blaine’s cock and stroking himself a couple times as he comes all over his chest and tummy. Blaine right after that, pulling him with his feet back on the ground and forcing him to bend over, his come dripping down Cody’s back, between his buttocks, against his oversensitive, still stretched opening, and then between his thighs, tickling him.

His knees give out first. He’s standing one moment, the next he’s falling to the floor, plummeting like snow. Blaine’s strong arms close around him and pull him up. He clings to him, shivering madly, tears streaming down his cheeks. He doesn’t feel bad. It’s just too much to keep inside. 

“It’s alright,” Blaine says, his voice sweet again, as he carries him back to Adam’s bed and lays him down on the soft, still warm blankets, “You did good, honey. We’re sorry all of this happened. We should’ve talked. We pushed it too far kicking you out, we shouldn’t have done it.”

Cody sobs loudly, clinging to him. “Can I speak now?” he whines. He hears Leo chuckle softly and then whisper his permission to him. “I missed you so much,” he says in between sobs, “I felt so bad. I know I made a mistake, but I really wanted this and I knew you wouldn’t have let me do it. Adam is important, can’t I have him? It doesn’t mean I love you less!”

Leo chuckles again, kissing him on his temple. “Look at me,” he says. Cody only moves away from Blaine to comply, but he keeps an arm over Blaine’s shoulder, to make sure he won’t walk away. “We’re jealous creatures, you know that. I can’t promise I’ll always be alright with this. But I understand this is important. We’ll try to make it work. Right?” he asks, looking up at Blaine. Blaine just nods, and Cody nods too, leaning in for a kiss that Leo promptly grants him.

“Let’s get you cleaned up,” Blaine says, finally standing up to walk to the chair in the corner, going through Adam’s clothes to search for something apt to the task.

Only then Cody finally realizes that Adam’s started to call for him again. His voice sounds frightened. It must’ve been horrific, for him. All that screaming, and then the sudden silence.

“Blaine,” he asks him, since he’s the closest to the door, “Do you mind letting Adam back in? He was very, very worried.”

“Sure,” Blaine says with a serene smile, unlocking and opening the door.

Adam slams it open so hard it ends up hitting the wall and bouncing back on his face. He lets out a whine as Blaine and Leo burst into laughing, and then he opens it again, more delicately, this time, massaging his nose with the other hand. “What the hell happened here?!” he yells. Then his eyes fall on Cody, still lying on the bed with Leo by his side. He’s covered in come, red bitemarks and he’s, obviously, completely naked. “I’m not sure I wanna know,” he says with a desperate, strangled voice.

“Wise choice,” Leo nods in appreciation, “Say, don’t you have anything to eat, instead?”

*

“So…” Adam asks, serving them all homemade cookies and a few glasses of warm milk, “Does this happen often?”

They’re all sitting around the kitchen table. Cody’s been cleaned up, wrapped in a blanket and sat down on a chair that’s been dragged as close as possible to Blaine’s, and he’s just sitting there, drifting in and out of sleep, completely exhausted against Blaine’s shoulder.

“I wouldn’t say so, no,” Leo answers, taking a bite of his cookie, “Mmh, that’s good. Amazing, actually. We should hire your mother.”

“Please, don’t,” Adam says with a sigh, “She works enough, already. You were saying?”

“Mhn? Ah, yes,” Leo nods, “No, it doesn’t happen often. It had never happened before, actually. Cody had never cheated on us before, so we didn’t know what would happen once we faced him again. I mean, of course we know our nature, so we could picture a few possible outcomes. But the details, you know, those were a mystery.”

“Speaking of which…” Adam says, looking down, “I wanted to say… I had no idea that was the _present_ he wanted to give me, but even when I understood, and when I got that he had left you out there to come to me, I couldn’t… I mean, I couldn’t pull back. I couldn’t even try, I mean—“

“You don’t have to explain the effect Cody had on you, love,” Blaine interrupts him with a loud laughter, “We’re living proof this one could push anyone to madness.”

Cody weakly punches Blaine’s chest, muttering “Mean,” and Blaine chuckles lightly and turns to kiss him on his forehead.

“…anyway,” Adam goes on, clearing his throat, “I don’t really know what happens now and frankly I’m scared to ask because you,” he says, pointing his index finger at the three of them, “Are freaky creatures, and you scare the crap out of me.”

It’s Leo’s turn to laugh. Apparently, he finds very amusing to terrify his acquaintances. “What happens now is, we try to make it work. Somehow,” he says, nodding his head twice, “It’ll take some work, but we can’t just ignore the fact that Cody was ready to leave the factory forever to keep seeing you. Not that I like it, I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’re a nice guy and you’re sure as hell very handsome, but I’m not really used to share with anyone that isn’t Blaine, so this will take some getting used to. I apologize in advance for all the times I’ll be unpleasant with you in the future.”

Adam frowns lightly, confused. “Why don’t you wait for it to happen, and apologize then?”

“Because I hate to apologize, and I’m lazy, so it’s better to do it in advance and you should be glad I even want to grace you with an all-inclusive apology at all, anyway,” Leo nods, “Next question?”

Adam covers his face with both his hands, groaning loudly. “This is gonna drive me crazy, isn’t it?” he asks. 

It’s a rhetorical question, but Blaine doesn’t seem to mind. “Possibly,” he answers, nodding, while Cody chuckles next to him. “Is there something else you want to know?”

“Not for the moment, no,” Adam sighs, “Thank you very much.”

“I wanna know something else!” Leo says, raising his hand as if he was asking permission to speak from an invisible teacher, “Are you airsick?”

Adam turns to look at him, blinking confusedly a few times. “Why do you wanna know?”

Leo grins, drinking what’s left of his milk in one long sip. “Well, we’ll have to start from somewhere,” he just says, “What do you say you come to the factory and we give you the tour?”


End file.
